This specification relates to editing audio data.
Different visual representations of audio data are commonly used to display different features of the audio data. For example, an amplitude display shows a representation of audio intensity in the time-domain (e.g., a graphical display with time on the x-axis and intensity on the y-axis). Similarly, a frequency spectrogram shows a representation of frequencies of the audio data in the time-domain (e.g., a graphical display with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis).
Audio data and digital audio data in particular can be edited. For example, digital audio data can be adjusted by a user to increase amplitude of the audio data (e.g., by increasing the overall intensity of the audio data). However, there is a maximum ceiling of amplitude that can be measured by a digital system. This is referred to as 0 decibels Full Scale (“0 dBFS”). If a portion of the audio data (e.g., a peak of the amplitude waveform of the audio data) is amplified beyond the ability of the system to measure (e.g., beyond 0 dBFS), the audio data is typically clipped at the maximum amplitude level, resulting in distortion of the audio data. Clipping results in a normally rounded peak of an audio waveform being squared at the maximum amplitude. In conventional digital signal processing, if audio data becomes clipped due to processing and is saved as clipped, the audio data will remain clipped even if played on an output device capable of supporting the unclipped audio data.